The award ceremony took place on 9 October at the Literaturhaus Frankfurt and was moderated by Anna Engel. Allee Verlag in Munich received the €5,000 Hotlist 2026 prize for the novel ‘Dein Wille wohnt in den Wäldern’ by Swedish author Mattias Timander, translated into German by Hanna Granz. The jury praised “Timanders Erzähkunst, Hanna Granz’ Übersetzung und Veronika Siskas verlegerische Haltung greifen darin auf besonders überzeugende Weise ineinander.”
Founded in 2024 by Veronika Siska, Allee Verlag aims to bring literary voices from across Europe to the German‑language market, focusing on languages and perspectives that have been under‑represented.
The Dörlemann ZuSatz award of €1,500 went to zeitkind Verlag (Meilen near Zürich) for Vera Martynov’s experimental work ‘41515 Wörter/слов’. In 2026, 205 independent publishers entered the Hotlist competition and more than 6,000 readers participated in the online vote.
The prize is funded by the Fondation Jan Michalski, Dörlemann Satz GmbH & Co. KG, the Förderkreis der Hotlist, Orell Füssli am Bellevue, the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels and other partners, underscoring the Hotlist’s role in promoting diversity and quality in the German‑speaking book trade.